Incidence refers to new cases per time period, while prevalence refers to what?

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Prevalence reflects the total number of people currently living with the disease at a specific point in time. It captures the overall burden in the population, including those diagnosed in the past who still have the condition, not just new cases.

This is different from incidence, which counts only new diagnoses within a defined period. Prevalence depends on how often the disease occurs (incidence) and how long people remain affected (duration), so chronic diseases with long duration tend to have higher prevalence even if new case numbers are modest.

So the statement that best fits is the total existing cases at a given time. The other ideas describe aspects like how severe the disease is, how many deaths occur, or how quickly people recover, which influence prevalence indirectly but do not define what prevalence measures.